The first two landings went unopposed, a part from 6 B26s from Mereuake who, unescorted, tried to bomb my CAs covering the landings at Kaimana (NW Coast of NG). The whole 6 of them had been shot down by my land based and carrier based Zeros (the CVL Ryujo is operating in those waters at the moment. A sub (Albacore) tried to fire at one of my BB west of Kaimana, but we're operating in shallow waters and our DDs (Finally!) managed to place 12 penetrating hits on it... pretty sure it's a goner!

So now Kaimana and Kei-landen (both bases that can be possibly built up to lvl 8 AF) are now guarded by a Naval garrison unit and by a regiment of the 20th Division. Dot bases with 3 forts is exactly what i want for my strategic defence!

The enemy doesn't seem to be eating the bait... for the moment!

CV Tahio arrived 2 days before than expected! She will now join her escort and will be moved towards Truk ASAP to join the Nagumo CarDiv.

In Burma, after the ambush over Akyab that costed him 50 planes, he stopped any offensive operation. Everything's quiet on that theatre, except for some units entering into Mitykina from the jungle east of it. I don't piss in my pants cause i have the crack 5th Division, a tank Bde, an artillery regiment and an Army HQ there, behind 4 forts... no way he can hope to breakthrough. We're still sending supplies to Burma. I don't wanna get overconfident here and want to hold the actual perimeter as long as possible. The more Burma remains safe, the more Singapore remains open.

The Adamans will soon get their needed reinforcements. A regiment should arrive very soon and am already prepping some chinese units for Great Nicobar and Little Adamans.

Sebang will get it's CD unit in about a 20 days (unloading at Singa in these days) and Siberoet will get a Bde and an arty unit.

At Christmas, despite the constant bombings, the only presence of 2 AA units is enough to prevent him from hitting a damn thing. And that means that the damage is being repaired and soon we'll be able to base some zeros there.

A Chinese SNLF unit is unloading at Uruppu Jiima (Kuriles) while a special base force and another rebuilt SNLF unit are ready at Tokyo to be sent to Etorofu. I consider the theatre pretty safe by now. As soon as i get some PPs i'll send more infantry units to Onnekotan and Uruppu. I really like the idea of having my Navy training units at Shimushiri. Makes me feel safe

In the Mariannas we're sending an Ind. Combat Regiment to Guam and more base forces are re-directed to Tinian and Pagan.

I'm also considering repositioning some of my SNLFs now based in lower solomons and send them to CENTPAC. I wanna Garrison Naru Island and Ocean and try to hold the Tarawa line as long as possible.

Supplies are being sent to Rabaul, Kwelajein, Truk, Bab and Saipan.

In Java Denpassar and Mataram are both getting a base force and an Infantry small unit.

The Tojo KI-44c has entered into production on the 1st of march. I won't build it untill July, in order not to exploit too much the R&D system. By July he will be full of Hellcats and so he'll be able to fight at decent odds against the armoured Tojo. In the meanwhile i'll keep on using the 350 KI-44a i have in the pools (have stopped producing them many months ago).

The air war is really not bloody. Brad never tries to attritt my pilots pools, nor i try to attritt his airframes pools. I really like this conservative style of play cause it makes you feel you're taking care of your men as if they were real and not only simple virtual 0s and 1s to be sent to die every time you want

The operation "running horse" is going smoothly, without any attempt of intervention by QBall so far. Tomorrow landings will be over, so the right flank of the Ambon sector will be garrisoned enough to prevent any easy attempt of conquest.

The only news of the day is that we saw for the first time the Corsairs in combat. We had created a MTB TF at Lutem to prevent any future attempt to bomb freely my important base. The enemy from Barthrust Island, actually misjudging the TF composition, attacked in the afternoon with 18 SDBs, escorted by not less than 45 P-48s and 21 F4Us. We had zekes and Nicks patrolling the skies and my guys did have a good day! For the loss of 4 Zekes and 2 Nicks (1 IJN pilot WIA and 2 IJA pilots KIA) we downed 8 Corsairs and 9 P-38s!!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Lautem at 72,115

This is a great result imho because it will force Brad to lower the range of his SDBs or to start sweeping my bases... and a war of sweeps over my bases is exactly what i want now that Georges are coming online.

Another J2M2 R&D factory became operative today so it will be switched to the J2M3 immediately. I think i can have that plane operative by september 1943 with 90 planes/month

Not less than 15 enemy subs are spotted operaing between Babar and Kaimana...Brad is really making some efforts in his sub warfare

GJ success WITH stacking limits was something I would have not imagined before in China. His advance was so quick in the beginning that Q-Ball did not have a chance after the first few months. A big Kudos is not enough here. The war in Burma is going to be a real slugfest.

China was a suprise for me too. The campaign has been decided by some unexpected events and by some strategic decisions.

1- The decision to spend the first months of PPs not to buy out from Manchuria Inf units but to buy exclusively Tank Rgts and artillery units. The anti soft and anti armour value of these units have been the key to overcome the problems related with stacking limits. 2- Brad's decision (mistake imho) to decide to defend very forward at the beginning, allowing me to use the tanks to breakthrough his perimeter and exploit the superior mobility of japanese tank units. This has led to a fast conquest of the whole Sian basin. 3- The aggressive use of paras in China that allowed me to conquer Tsuyun, forcing Brad to abbandon the whole Changsha sector without fighting.

Then Brad, with a shrinked perimeter, managed to slow down a lot my advances. But the loss of the north (where the 1st Army exploited the successes of Sian moving fast towards Lanchow) caused him huge problems in term of supplie and we started a series of epic battles around Tienshui and Chikkiang, where only the superior firepower of the Japs and the costant rotation of units, allowed us to break his defences.

4- The last penetration of the massed tank units west of Kweyiang, over the rough terrain, that caught Brad by surprise and allowed us to get into the central plains, bypassing all his defensive perimeter built around rough-wood terrain hexes.

In Burma the key has simply been a very forward defence in the jungle hexes, creating a continuous line of well dug in troops. The jungle prevented him to use his air power effectively (along with a strong air defence by Japan) and the stacking limits gave us the opportunity to play at our own terms. Thai units, if backed up by crack japanese divisions, did manage to hold their own against the Indian units. The other thing was that we never lost the controll of our air space over Central Burma. magwe and Mandalay, along with rangoon in the back, were built up and are guessing not less than 600 IJA planes. even Akyab, who was left alone by our Air Army cause it was too exposed (even if we did succesfully won some good air battles over there), managed to hold against the whole indian tank army. Forts + terrain + stacking limits are the friends Japan wants for a succesfull defence of Burma

Things will surely change now, as soon as Brad's units will get their TOEs upgraded to 1943 devices... but i'm very happy to have held untill now

The only news of the day is that we saw for the first time the Corsairs in combat.

First Corsair is not so great as we all think. He is only minimal better from P-38. SR3 and only 30 per month production also limit him as main fighter in first half of `43 Ok, he can sweep You one or two times and after that he will be out of Corsairs for next month With George and Tojo "c" entering production He will pay huge price with planes and pilots to gain air superiority.

Problem will start with 1a version, very fast,good climb, SR2 and huge production numbers. No telling about P-47.

Yesterday, on March 2nd 1943, we laid our trap. We've been tracking 4 British BBs during the last 8 days. They arrived from Exmouth and stopped their trip at Derby. They have been sitting there for 6 days in a row... no air cover (only 11 fighters spotted at Broome, while none at Derby)... the perfect prey, right?

Sure...

We waited for a good day of clear overcasted weather... In the meanwhile another juicy target moving from Darwin to Derby arrives... APs... light escort... no air cover... this is the perfect environement, right?

Ok... we moved 140 Betties at Koepang, along with 27 zeros for escort. More 27 Zeros will sweep Derby. I re-organized all my naval search so that only the BBs could be spotted at derby, not to confuse my pilots with too many sightings...

More 90 Nells from Alor will be targetting the passage from Whyndam to Derby, in case the BBs decide to move towards darwin...

70 more Kates will cover that passage (Derby-Whyndam)...

25 Emilies/Mavies are moved to search only the small arcs from Derby to Whyndam...

Only two sections of 9 betties appear over Derby (one in the morning and one in the afternoon)... while 30 more decide to target useless empty transports at Whyndam...the DL was perfect over the BBs... the zeros swept as we wanted... but out of 140 Betties only 18 attacked the BBs!!!!!

It could have been a disaster for Brad... while only a couple of torpedoes hit their targets (and i do think one of them is FOW)...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning Air attack on Derby , at 64,127

CAP engaged: No.77 Sqn RAAF with Kittyhawk IA (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling) (10 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.) 0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 10 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact. Group patrol altitude is 20000 Time for all group planes to reach interception is 2 minutes

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning Air attack on TF, near Derby at 64,127

Bah... Stuff happens. Not a disaster, just a missed opportunity but you did everything right, sometimes the computer just doesn't want to help.. Will help keep him on his toes for the future. 1 or 2 bagged BBs would have been nice sure, but doesn't change much in the end.

Yes, i know, it's not vital. But it would have been really a good thing to punish Brad for being so sloopy with his RN over there. Doesn't change anything but at least, as you say guys, this will force him to proceed more carefully, thus buyin me more time to dig in and consolidate.

Mar 4 1943

The enemy isn't moving from Darwin. The BBs have been disbanded at Derby where a strong CAP is now present. My Betties have been re-located back to Ambon-Biak-Lautem area and we're now waiting for the two amphib TFs to finish their unloadings (took forever!!!).

In China Brad is trying to re-open the southern Chungking perimeter. We're sending our tanks and divisions, in their way to Canton, to get rid of those buggers (i don't have the PPs to buy any Division from China yet, so i can still use them offensively there).

CV Tahio is ready to sail towards the central pacific to join the KB.

Constant bombings over Saumlaki and Babar. Nothing new on the orizont.

my subs are waiting for the enemy damaged CVs to appear south of PH... sending some of them in front of the West Coast too.

The enemy seems to have moved out from Townsville his damaged BBs and moved them towards Sydney.

Another George little group is operative at Sosarbaja.

42 Tojos have been moved to Chengtu in order to defend the newly conquested HI present there.

200k supplies are being loaded and sent to Singapore, Java and Ambon. In HI are now present 500k supplies and 1600k fuel.

A strong base force and another SNLF unit are loading for the Kuriles, along with 20k supplies.

Could the arcs for the nav search of the Betty units have played a role ? I just find that arcs tend to muck up the Air game more than anything else... Just a thought.

There would still be a residual DL on the transport convoy from the previous turn's searchs. I see the problem as failure to assign any fighter escorts to the bombers. Imagine you are the commander of a bomber group and you have a choice: attack some BBs which carry a lot of flak guns and which have some fighter cover while you have none, OR attack a very soft transport target (which could be loaded with troops) with no known air cover. The commander may be personally willing to die for the glory of the Emperor (high aggression) but he will not want his legacy to be the loss of his entire squadron. Having said that - a lot less than 160 bombers flew, so weather must have been terrible over launch base or targets.

_____________________________

No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth

Yes, i know, it's not vital. But it would have been really a good thing to punish Brad for being so sloopy with his RN over there. Doesn't change anything but at least, as you say guys, this will force him to proceed more carefully, thus buyin me more time to dig in and consolidate.

Mar 4 1943

The enemy isn't moving from Darwin. The BBs have been disbanded at Derby where a strong CAP is now present. My Betties have been re-located back to Ambon-Biak-Lautem area and we're now waiting for the two amphib TFs to finish their unloadings (took forever!!!).

In China Brad is trying to re-open the southern Chungking perimeter. We're sending our tanks and divisions, in their way to Canton, to get rid of those buggers (i don't have the PPs to buy any Division from China yet, so i can still use them offensively there).

CV Tahio is ready to sail towards the central pacific to join the KB.

Constant bombings over Saumlaki and Babar. Nothing new on the orizont.

my subs are waiting for the enemy damaged CVs to appear south of PH... sending some of them in front of the West Coast too.

The enemy seems to have moved out from Townsville his damaged BBs and moved them towards Sydney.

Another George little group is operative at Sosarbaja.

42 Tojos have been moved to Chengtu in order to defend the newly conquested HI present there.

200k supplies are being loaded and sent to Singapore, Java and Ambon. In HI are now present 500k supplies and 1600k fuel.

A strong base force and another SNLF unit are loading for the Kuriles, along with 20k supplies.

The best laid plans go awry... But these are ships that are due to be withdrawn and don't come back, so not a big deal. The torpedo hits will keep them quite until it is time for them to leave. So it was a "mission kill" anyways.

I think you are all right: the D/L and the search arcs seldom play the role we want in air2naval battles. Let's live with it!

Mar 05-06 1943

While the enemy BBs finally abbandon Derby, moving down to Port Hedland unmolested, another TF is approaching...let's see if i can get luckier!

The main event of these days is the naval battle that occurred at Kai-eilanden on the 6th. While the japanese amphib TF is finishing unloading the "C" regiment of the 20th Division, an allied TF approached at flank speed from Bathrust. 2 CAs and 6 DDs... i had a CATF covering our landings, with 3 BBs 2 hexes north... The allied ships managed to suprise ours, arriving without being spotted despite the heavy night search... They managed to get close and opened fire first!... But after a couple of rounds at 7,000 yards on the defensive (rounds that costed me a destroyer), we fired back...and we hit the target hard!

The Devonshire immediately sunk, along with another DD... then, with daylight, we pursued the enemy south and we engaged the LeTriomphant, sinking it

We were so out of position, far away from our air cover and the enemy arrived with its beauforts... luckly none of them scored a hit!

We spotted again another TF moving from Darwin towards that dot base between Darwin and Derby (see map above). I thought to ambush a good amphib TF full of troops, so i moved in again my betties (range 8 this time) and gave them some decent escort (40 zekes), with more 80 zeros sweeping it from Lautem... ended up that Brad, wisely, is using barges to do that job, so my Betties didn't consider them a valuable target. Soon the passage betwen Darwin and Derby will be CAPped by Brad's fighters... but then again, this will force him to diluite his forces and that's a good thing for me.

The 8th Division is arriving in southern DEI. Still undecided if to send it to the Mariannas or use it to garrison some bases in the DEI...mmm.... but it's a good unit and i hate to use it divided in regiments....

My subs aren't spotting the enemy CVs getting back to PH... last time i saw them they were at Pago Pago but, since then, i lost track of them. They must have run like the Devil himself was on their heels or they chose to go directly to West Coast, taking the southern route... I have one last chance with 2 subs operating near SF... let's see and keep the finger crossed!

With the Mariannas finally being garrisoned i'm already thinking about Luzon and Mindanao... should i start garrisoning and building? tough decision cause i simply don't have enough engineers to be sent there... but i know how much time it takes to build a complex of fortifications and the later i start the weaker i'll be when the day will come....

Check your reinforcement queue. There are lots of LCUs arriving in 1944, and 1945 - directly in PI. You just have to hold Allies from reaching it earlier

Although you can send some Engineers there, to start fort building.

quote:

three tank divisions are already attached to the southern command, so can be moved out immediately.... where is the best place to use the tanks? Burma? Java? Sumatra? Islands?

With BAZOOKAs everywhere, their only advantage would be speed, so put them somewhere, where they will be only using roads/clear terrain. Optimally to cut off enemy.

With the Mariannas finally being garrisoned i'm already thinking about Luzon and Mindanao... should i start garrisoning and building? tough decision cause i simply don't have enough engineers to be sent there... but i know how much time it takes to build a complex of fortifications and the later i start the weaker i'll be when the day will come....

Check your reinforcement queue. There are lots of LCUs arriving in 1944, and 1945 - directly in PI. You just have to hold Allies from reaching it earlier

Although you can send some Engineers there, to start fort building.

quote:

three tank divisions are already attached to the southern command, so can be moved out immediately.... where is the best place to use the tanks? Burma? Java? Sumatra? Islands?

With BAZOOKAs everywhere, their only advantage would be speed, so put them somewhere, where they will be only using roads/clear terrain. Optimally to cut off enemy.

I've just read that very interesting thread about LCU combat modifiers in the war room and it seems that the anti-armour value of the medium tanks is foundamental to hold in fortified bases against the assaulting enemy. Also their stacking cost is pretty low compared to their firepower and that make them a perfect complement for the 35,000 stacking limited bases (like those in the Mariannas). Imagine Guam, Saipan, Tinian, each of them stacked with a Tank Division, a full Infantry Division, a couple of Arty units and some AA units...with forts etc.... not a good landing site

I've just read what did Herbie at Saumlaki in 1944 with only a regiment and a guard unit.... he held off for ages against 3 elite divisions!!!

while our CAs are gathering at Kendari to refuel and replenish (Kendari now has a naval HQ, 2 naval base forces, 240k fuel and 30k supplies), the BBs and a CVL are covering the retreat to Ambon of the amphib TFs. I like Crib's idea. The 8th is getting to Kendari (but only one division can be based there, due to the stacking limit) and i'm also thinking of sending 2 tank divisions to southern DEI to be used there... but yet i have to decide. In the meanwhile the tank divisions are moving down from the Central China plains, securing the perimeter in the journey to Canton.

On the 7th we ambushed Brad's sealanes once again, this time at Horn Island. Brad had concentrated all his fighter force between Darwin and Bathrust, so Horn Island and the straits were left without a fighter force. We sent 22 Betties from Lae that nailed 4 xAKs. No losses on my side and Now Brad had to move some fighters back there... small and cheap hits usefull to keep him on guard everywhere .

Micheal, about my economy.... i think i'm not doing that bad given the particular mod we're playing. Supplies levels remain stable on the map at 2.5 millions, while the HI keeps on growing (now at 1.3 millions). A/C pools are plenty and am shutting down most of my factories cause i don't really need that many a/c for the moment. Fuel in Japan is at 1.7 million...we only lack oil (now at 250k) but we're working hard on it.

Ship losses have been decent after we solved the ASW problem in mid 1942. The convoy system is working fine and my air ASW is keeping most of his subs at bay almost everywhere.

The R&D is going smooth, considering the auto-limitations. I think we can have the KI-84a by August 1943 and by sept 1943 we should be able to get the J2M3 for our Navy LBA units.

Our amphib TF is safe and, for the loss of one DD we sunk 3 DDs and a CA...not bad

Not bad indeed! But given that there were two Allied CA's against three IJN CA's (and none of the Kinugasas) it's clear Q-Ball didn't bring enough food to the party.

Think he didn't realize it, despite i had that TF sitting there for 3 turns, defending the amphib TF. Brad said "good ambush" in his email, as if i had ambushed him, while in reality i think he was the one who ambushed me, not the other way around.

More on the R&D... the first 1x60 KI-84a Factory is now repaired. The Frances will arrive mid march 1943 (good!) I don't think i'll be keep on researching the second generation of the Frances... those models do not look that good imho

Isn't the second gen Frances service rating 2? The first one is service 4, so a bit of a bear if your base gets nailed or you want a day two attack.

About the tanks on islands. I like the idea, but only in critical spots. And I wouldn't use the big divisions out there, just the regiments. For the divisions I'd put them somewhere where the mobility will be useful. I think Burma is ideal, but you could put them in Java.

_____________________________

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill

Isn't the second gen Frances service rating 2? The first one is service 4, so a bit of a bear if your base gets nailed or you want a day two attack.

About the tanks on islands. I like the idea, but only in critical spots. And I wouldn't use the big divisions out there, just the regiments. For the divisions I'd put them somewhere where the mobility will be useful. I think Burma is ideal, but you could put them in Java.

A medium bomber with a service rating of 4 is a tough plane to work with. Lots will die on the ground once the Allies start to get some airpower.